for the past 12 week I've been following the plan as described in Nick Mitchell book:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Ultimate-Body-Transformation-Plan/dp/0008147914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466227740&sr=8-1&keywords=mitchell+12+weekNick Mitchell website:http://nickmitchellblog.com/

This is a 12 week plan, made of 4 3 week cycles, each cycle focusing on 1 body part (2 workouts/week) + 2 extra workouts for the rest of the body.The user is free to choose the body parts he/she wants to focus on. The only rule is not to focus on the same body part for more than 3 weeks.My cycles were:armsbackdeltschest

Cons and pros of the method

Cons:- Not for beginners. Workouts are quite demanding and require a certain gym know-how. It's clearly stated in the method and the author gives a routine plan to follow for few months for people who have spent less than 2 years at the gym.Also if you miss a piece of equipment or your gym does not have a specific machine, you need to be gym savvy enough to come up with a suitable alternative, as the author does not give any.- Workouts cannot be reasonably done at gym peak times.Workouts call for plenty of supersets, which is all good except you can't really hog 2 pieces of equipment at peak times in a gym.So you need your own home gym, or go to the gym at less busy times, early in the morning or at night.- Nutrition plan is a vegan hell.Nick Mitchell basically killed Bambi's mother, then ate Bambie the day after, for brekkie.The meal plans calls for animal protein at every meals, adding carbs only post-workouts or at night.So if you're vegan or vegetarian, getting close to the macros requires a large use of protein powder.

Pros:- It keeps on changing.You change the body part you focus on every 3 week, so just when you're getting comfortable with a routine, it's time to change again.Withing a cycle, rest times, number of sets and number of rests change as well. No way to get bored.- Teaches proper form and tempo.The author puts a lot of emphasis on form and tempo, so you make sure you target the right muscles and ask a lot from them.The eccentric part of the exercises is always done slooowly (often 4 to 6 seconds), so you have plenty of time to feel the pain - Teaches interesting takes and variations on exercises.For instance, I feel that kneeling when doing E-Z bar curls helps targeting biceps a lot more than doing the same exercise standing.

What went well... or wrong.

Well:- I can endure quite a bit more pain when it comes to lifting. I don't give up as easily as I used too.- better wam-ups.I use to warm-up with some cardio. Now as specified in the method I warm with low weights, slowly increasing the weights and lowering the number of reps.- better form. My shoulders does not hurt anymore after bench press for instance.- legs workout made my legs stronger, which help with my old knee injury and running- stopped drinking 4-6 cups of extra strong coffee in an effort to get an healthier life style on the way.Now I just have 1 cup before working out.

Wrong:- I didn't not eat enough to gain real mass. I don't like to feel stuffed, and I get stuffed really fast!Also part of me still thinks as an anorexic, stupidly associating calorie intake with self-worth and cleanliness, all that non-sense

What I should have done differently:- eat more!- take measurements to help assessing progress- take photos of these bloody legs too!- do less cardio, especially in the early days of the program, and forget about running a half-marathon.

Anyway... did that method work?

To some degree, but not as much as I expected.

Stats summary:

The first couples of week (italic) are not really reliable as I was using crappy scales

Not much change is the upper body, some clothes feel a bit tighter.Noticeable changes in the legs though. But I didn't take pics of those :p

I'm quite stronger though and I'm able to lift 10 - 20% heavier than when I started.So I'd say I've gain more strength than mass.

What's next?

- off for holidays today : 1 week in Finland!- when I'm back : do the 3 week leg cycle I haven't tried yet.- follow the same plan, but changing the macros and go less protein/fats, and higher carbs.Something like: 15% protein, 70%carbs, 15% fats- try the previous 12 week method by the same authorhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/12-Week-Body-Plan-MagBook-ebook/dp/B00GO6BST6/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466232766&sr=1-4&keywords=nick+mitchell- try shorter, very high intensity workout and max contraction training as described on this forum by HIT Rob.http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=35421&start=390

Finland...why you lucky son of a .... Been to Iceland (which was awesome), but really fancy a Nordic cruise in the future. Enjoy!

Increasing your intensity and decreasing you volume will definitely be a step in the right direction mate, results are proportional to the intensity of effort, as a pioneering physiologist by the name of Roux stated "hypertrophy results in the increase of intensity of the work done in a unit of time, whereas the total amount of work done is without significance".

WeightsI've bee doing the leg cycle as described in the method I used before for the 12 week challenge:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Ultimate-Body-Transformation-Plan/dp/0008147914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468749380&sr=8-1&keywords=nick+mitchell

The program for a week was as follows. I periodised it to increase weights and decrease reps every week:

Pull-ups on arm day: a personal trainer I met while on holidays told me to try and do as many pull-ups as possible in 15mn in order to become stronger. Apparently once you can do 100 pull-ups, you can do a set of 20 reps.

So far I my record is 70. It's really taxing and I was super sore the first time I tried. Not sure it's working for me.

Max contraction trainingI read the Max Contraction training by John Little, upon HIIT Rob's suggestion on this forum.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Contraction-Training-Scientifically-Building/dp/0071423958/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468751065&sr=8-1&keywords=max+contraction+trainingThe idea is that you can decrease reps and training time by going for very high weights while keeping the muscle contracted for a very short time.I intend to give it a go later on this year, but out of curiosity I started trying it already on various machines to see how it goes.It's intense!

NutritionI switched to carb cycling between 4 high days (weights days) 3 and low days, for an average calorie intake close to maintenance (2600kcal)

After 3 years vegan I decided to try a vegetarian diet, adding eggs and cottage cheese. Didn't notice any increase in performance, recovery, or body composition.I went for organic stuff but even like that I didn't feel really comfortable buying animal products, so it's back to a vegan diet.

Rounding things up:

High days:3000 kcal:170g prot - 25%380g carbs - 55%70g fat - 20%

Low days:2000kcal170g prot - 40%55g carbs - 10%100g fat - 50%

StatsNot much change, although my legs are more muscular:weight: 68.4kgfat: 8.7%muscle: 58.4kg

CardioStarted doing spinning class once a week, more demanding that when I do intervals on my own.With the instructor shouting at you, the loud shit music and the group around, it all really pushes you to do more than you would on your own. Whenever I do classes, it seems they are far more girls than guys, so singles: give classes a go

Also signed up for another half-marathon in Warrington in mid-September. Planning to do it in a fancy costume, maybe Jack Sparrow or a dinosaur, just because.

Also really want to get back into martial art for fitness and cardio. I used to do taekwondo, but the time and the class didn't really suit me. Had 1 lesson of krav maga this week which I enjoyed, very friendly people and supportive atmosphere - in spite of all the aggro

Next 3 weeks:- weights: I'll start another 12 week plan by the same trainerhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/12-Week-Body-Plan-MagBook-ebook/dp/B00GO6BST6?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc- nutrition: get back to a vegan diet, stop relying as much on protein supplements and take carbs up for macros like:prot - 15%arbs - 65%fat - 20%- cardiofind a martial art class I really like and fully get into it, for 2-3 sessions/week if possible.I already planned to try: karate, kickboxing, and muay thai.

The advanced MCT book I think is even better, goes into the omega set training and talks with high level athletes from different sports who've used it successfully. John also goes into the glycogen theory, and why high carb diet is a most for this type of training method.

Love Urban Krav Maga btw, did it for a couple of years about 6 years ago, also training in Wing Tsun years ago, reached a pretty high level, but couldnt continue due to illness at that time. Might give the KM another go. Found it to be more realistic than traditional systems due to its aggressive approach and the techniques, their arent fancy, but their definitely very effective.